KurtágJátékok

Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo (pfs)

WergoWER 6766 2

76 mins

Kurtág’s Játékok (Hungarian for ‘Games’),
which he started in 1973 as a set of teaching
exercises, have now grown into an eight-
volume series of musical sketchbooks, filled
with what the CD-booklet calls ‘homages,
reminiscences and compositional
experiments’ – although, crucially, many are
under a minute long. Helena Bugallo and
Amy Williams have collected the 35 scored
for piano duet (four hands) and two pianos,
and added a selection of Kurtág’s equally
fleeting transcriptions of early music,
Machaut to Bach, plus his tiny 1956 Suite
for
piano duet. They don’t quite match the
playful charm of Kurtág and his wife Márta
on their recordings of Játékok selections,
but they play with panache and are
sensitive to the transcriptions’ diffident
beauty. The disc also offers 21 previously
unrecorded pieces.